California Baptist University
Occidental Invitational
CBU Concludes Track Regular Season at Occidental Invite
5/3/2025 11:22:00 PM | Cross Country & Track
LOS ANGELES, CA--- The California Baptist University track team traveled to Los Angeles for its final regular season meet of the season as they competed in the Occidental Invitational on Saturday evening.
The meet began for the Lancers in the 800m with Petra Sara Kiss and Nazarena Rivas competing for the women's team. Kiss would finish 8th in the 32-runner field, setting a new personal best time at 2:13.00. The women would continue into the 1500, with four athletes competing across multiple heats. In the fastest heat, Laura Acuna and Helena Mees both showed well with top 10 times in the field. Acuna ran a 4:24.84, which fell just a few seconds shy of the PR that she set at the Bob Larsen Invite, which was also the fourth-fastest time in program history. Mees came close behind her with a personal best time of 4:31.49.
The men would also compete in the 1500 with four runners of their own competing over seven heats of the event. Daniel Abdala kicked off the event for the Lancers in the fastest heat of the race and would finish with a solid time of 3:45.91, which was good enough for 8th in the race and was two seconds behind his Bob Larsen PR. Manuel Rojas competed for the first time this season for the Lancers and would come away with a fourth-place finish in his heat and the 45th-fastest overall time at 3:55.88.
Following the 1500s, the Lancers transitioned into the 5Ks, with both the women and the men having a handful of runners competing over several sections. For the women, Karolina Bliujute started the group off strong by crushing her previous personal best with a time of 16:47.75. The time not only was top 6 in the event but was nearly ten seconds faster than her 5K at the Mike Fanelli Track Classic a few weeks earlier. Ceyda Pinar collected a top 15 time in the event at 17:15.73, while Ana Mees set a PR at 17:24.63.
The men would conclude the night in a big way in the 5K, with five of the top 11 runners in the 5K field donning the CBU navy blue singlets. Ernesto Ruiz would kick off the event with a monster PR, shattering his previous by 11 seconds. Ruiz earned a sub-14 time at 13:55.06, which was the third fastest time of the event, and was one of only four runners to run under 14 minutes on the night. Ruiz was not the only Lancer to PR in the race, as both Finn Anspach and Talon Rodriguez would set new personal bests. Anspach would claim the 5th fastest time of the event at 14:01.27, while Rodriguez would win his heat in dominating fashion at 14:12.73 and have the 9th fastest time.
NEXT: The Lancers will now shift their focus toward the postseason as they will make the trip to Texas in two weeks to compete in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament in Arlington.
Players Mentioned
